Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Most people won't do it...

A few years back, I was introduced to an audio CD called The Strangest Secret. A gentleman by the name of Earl Nightengale recorded it way before I was born. The words of the recording are timeless! From now until infinity, what he spoke of on that recording will be true. There is no way of getting around it.

Later, I found the same recording in writing! Did you know that the brain processes what you read and what you hear differently? Well, I read the words of the exact came recording I listened to years ago, and it had an even larger impact on my life! Some may argue that it was because of the personal growth I had experienced between hearing and reading it. While there may be some validity there, I think that the main reason I was hit harder by it the second time around was because of the mental processing that it took to read the words of The Strangest Secret.

Here is where the rubber meets the road...

The reason that I entitled this blog entry "Most people won't do it..." is because most people that come to this page won't take the time to read what I am about to lay out before you. This one piece of material is partially responsible for my success. Who knows what impact it may have on you. The only way to find out is if you read it... but most of you won't. No further delay is necessary. Please read, enjoy, and put into action Earl Nightengale's Strangest Secret.

The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightengale

Do you know what will happen to 100 individuals who start even at the age of 25, and

who believe they will be successful? By the age of 65, only five out of 100 will make

the grade! Why do so many fail? What happened to the sparkle that was there when

they were 25? What became of their dreams, their hopes, their plans ... and why is

there such a large disparity between what theses people intended to do and what they

actually accomplished? That is ... The Strangest Secret.

Some years ago, the late Nobel prize-winning Dr. Albert Schweitzer was asked by a

reporter, “Doctor, what’s wrong with men today?; The great doctor was silent a

moment, and then he said, “Men simply don’t think!”

It’s about this that I want to talk with you. We live today in a golden age. This is an

era that humanity has looked forward to, dreamed of, and worked toward for

thousands of years. We live in the richest era that ever existed on the face of the earth

... a land of abundant opportunity for everyone.

However, if you take 100 individuals who start even at the age of 25, do you have any

idea what will happen to those men and women by the time they’re 65? These 100

people believe they’re going to be successful. They are eager toward life, there is a

certain sparkle in their eye, an erectness to their carriage, and life seems like a pretty

interesting adventure to them.

But by the time they’re 65, only one will be rich, four will be financially independent,

five will still be working, and 54 will be broke — depending on others for life’s

necessities.

Only five out of 100 make the grade! Why do so many fail? What has happened to the

sparkle that was there when they were 25? What has become of the dreams, the hopes,

the plans ... and why is there such a large disparity between what these people

intended to do and what they actually accomplished?THE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

First, we have to define success and here is the best definition I’ve ever been able to

find: “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”

A success is the school teacher who is teaching because that’s what he or she wants to

do. A success is the entrepreneur who start his own company because that was his

dream — that’s what he wanted to do. A success is the salesperson who wants to

become the best salesperson in his or her company and sets forth on the pursuit of that

goal.

A success is anyone who is realizing a worthy predetermined ideal, because that’s

what he or she decided to do ... deliberately. But only one out of 20 does that! The rest

are “failures.”

Rollo May, the distinguished psychiatrist, wrote a wonderful book called Man’s

Search for Himself, and in this book he says: “The opposite of courage in our society

is not cowardice … it is conformity.” And there you have the reason for so many

failures. Conformity — people acting like everyone else, without knowing why or

where they are going.

We learn to read by the time we’re seven. We learn to make a living by the time we’re

30. Often by that time we’re not only making a living, we’re supporting a family. And

yet by the time we’re 65, we haven’t learned how to become financially independent

in the richest land that has ever been known. Why? We conform! Most of us are

acting like the wrong percentage group — the 95 who don’t succeed.

GOALS

Have you ever wondered why so many people work so hard and honestly without ever

achieving anything in particular, and why others don’t seem to work hard, yet seem to

get everything? They seem to have the “magic touch.” You’ve heard people say,

“Everything he touches turns to gold.” Have you ever noticed that a person who

becomes successful tends to continue to become more successful? And, on the other

hand, have you noticed how someone who’s a failure tends to continue to fail?

The difference is goals. People with goals succeed because they know where they’re

going. It’s that simple. Failures, on the other hand, believe that their lives are shaped

by circumstances ... by things that happen to them ... by exterior forces. Think of a ship with the complete voyage mapped out and planned. The captain and

crew know exactly where the ship is going and how long it will take — it has a

definite goal. And 9,999 times out of 10,000, it will get there.

Now let’s take another ship — just like the first — only let’s not put a crew on it, or a

captain at the helm. Let’s give it no aiming point, no goal, and no destination. We just

start the engines and let it go. I think you’ll agree that if it gets out of the harbor at all,

it will either sink or wind up on some deserted beach — a derelict. It can’t go

anyplace because it has no destination and no guidance.

It’s the same with a human being. However, the human race is fixed, not to prevent

the strong from winning, but to prevent the weak from losing. Society today can be

likened to a convoy in time of war. The entire society is slowed down to protect its

weakest link, just as the naval convoy has to go at the speed that will permit its

slowest vessel to remain in formation.

That’s why it’s so easy to make a living today. It takes no particular brains or talent to

make a living and support a family today. We have a plateau of so-called “security.”

So, to succeed, all we must do is decide how high above this plateau we want to aim.

Throughout history, the great wise men and teachers, philosophers, and prophets have

disagreed with one another on many different things. It is only on this one point that

they are in complete and unanimous agreement — the key to success and the key to

failure is this:

WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT

This is The Strangest Secret! Now, why do I say it’s strange, and why do I call it a

secret? Actually, it isn’t a secret at all. It was first promulgated by some of the earliest

wise men, and it appears again and again throughout the Bible. But very few people

have learned it or understand it. That’s why it’s strange, and why for some equally

strange reason it virtually remains a secret.

Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Emperor, said: “A man’s life is what his thoughts

make of it.”

Disraeli said this: “Everything comes if a man will only wait ... a human being with a

settled purpose must accomplish it, and nothing can resist a will that will stake even

existence for its fulfillment.”

William James said: “We need only in cold blood act as if the thing in question were

real, and it will become infallibly real by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real. It will become so knit with habit and emotion that our

interests in it will be those which characterize belief.” He continues, “ ... only you

must, then, really wish these things, and wish them exclusively, and not wish at the

same time a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly.”

My old friend Dr. Norman Vincent Peale put it this way: “If you think in negative

terms, you will get negative results. If you think in positive terms, you will achieve

1 comment:

This brings new life to the 6-month goal list I make at day light savings time. I stick the note on the back of a clock in my house, then review when its time to turn the clock (back or up depending on the season). Starting the 30-day challenge now! Thanks for sharing Mel